1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of conducting recycling treatment of refuse of plastic molded articles such as plastic bottles, particularly polyethylene terephthalate bottles to produce a chip or pellet material of the plastics for recycling, and an apparatus therefor. More particularly, this invention provides a consecutive, automatized method and apparatus for recycling treatment of refuse of plastic molded articles which have paper labels laminated with adhesive thereon and may have protective coverings of dissimilar plastics at the bottom portions thereof, wherein the paper labels and protective coverings are completely detached and removed, and the adhesive, stain and foreign matters are cleaned off, whereby purified original plastic material for recycling is regenerated.
2. Statement of Prior Art
Recent trend of vessels for a variety of beverages is that plastic bottles, particularly polyethylene terephthalate (hereinafter abbreviated as "PET") bottles supersede glass bottles from the respects of lightweight, convenience, little failure to break, disposability, etc. and their production quantity is on the increase. For vessels for various seasonings, cosmetics, detergents, medicines, etc., blow molded bottles of other plastics such as polyvinyl chloride, polyolefins, etc. as well as glass bottles are used in tremendous quantity.
Empty bottles of these plastics after use are mostly delivered as domestic refuse or rubbish, which not only leads to waste of resources, but also accelerates increase in plastics refuse which accounts for a large part of the refuse increment, and the increase of plastics refuse makes the problem of refuse treatment and disposal more difficult.
In general, plastics refuse is treated by incineration or disposed of by reclamation as such. In the former case, upon burning, incinerators are liable to be damaged owing to significant loading, and various noxious gases and toxic substances such as dioxines are produced, which facts pose a problem unsolved. In the latter case, for example, plastic blow-molded vessels have a small apparent specific gravity and accordingly, their refuse has such a bulky volume that huge final disposal sites are necessitated. Another problem of plastic refuse is that most plastics are stable and are not decomposed forever in the reclaimed ground.
As a consequence, the increased discharge of plastics refuse surpasses greatly the limit of disposal capacity of refuse incinerators and necessitates many final disposal sites of extensive area and many incineration places. Nevertheless, acquisition of new incineration and disposal sites is increasingly difficult and moreover, leads to aggravation of environmental pollution. Therefore, nowadays, it is urgent important problem to expedite the reduction of refuse, particularly plastics refuse.
In order to solve the baffling problem, the tendency of the times is toward reducing refuse as far as possible thus minimizing waste of resources and preserving the environment from the global viewpoint. The thinking is changing from throwaway of various kinds of resources toward recycling and reuse. To that end, a variety of approaches are being attempted also in the industrial field.
For the reduction of refuse, attempts to recycling have recently began of plastics empty bottles that are bulky and discarded in tremendous number, for example, PET empty bottles. At the present, however, any system of large-scale industrial recycling treatment for them has not yet been practiced.
This invention is therefore aimed at providing a method and an apparatus for recycling treatment of waste plastic molded articles, particularly empty bottles of PET, which method and apparatus enable to offer pellets or chips of its original plastics, thus again utilizing them as a raw material for the production of plastic molded articles.
In particular, this invention has for an object to provide a method and apparatus for recycling treatment of refuse of plastic shaped articles, which are industrially and consecutively practiced and automatized.